NEW YORK
WNYT
[with video]
June 19, 2017
ALBANY – Shaun Dougherty, a Long Island restaurant owner, and veteran, was molested by his parish priest when he was 10-years-old. The pain and anguish, he says, remains with him in adulthood.
“I died in 1980, mentally, in my soul,” Dougherty says, “I attempted to take my life. I swallowed over 300 pills in 1994.”
Dougherty was at the state Capitol Monday, along with other child sexual abuse survivors and advocates, urging passage of the Child Victim Act to eliminate the statute of limitations that’s currently set at 23, and allow survivors to file civil lawsuits against their abusers.
“There is no money amount we are going for, it’s not about that,” said Brinie Farrell, a former speed skater, who was abused by an Olympic teammate in Saratoga Springs when she was 15.
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